Israel SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

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Book Recommendations > Need an "unputdownable" book

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message 1: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
OK guys, I need your help. I haven't managed to finish a book in ages so I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me find a book to break my reading slump- a book so good that it will be impossible for me to put it down.

I'm really not in the mood for anything dark, so no dystopias or apocalyptic stories, or anything with torture, slavery or sick or dying children. A good epic fantasy would be nice, with some well-drawn characters, but not too many POV's, because my attention span can't handle that right now.

So...anyone got anything for me?


message 2: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments Did you read Old Man's War?
I wouldn't call it amazing but I also didn't feel like lemming it at any point so I guess that qualifies. Also, it's the first book in a series so if you end up liking it you can just keep going.


message 3: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Actually, that was one of the last books that I can recall finishing. I did really enjoy it but haven't gotten around to getting the next book in the series because I heard it wasn't as good.


message 4: by Tzippy (new)

Tzippy (trempnvt) | 28 comments Have you read Seraphina yet? :)

Actually, I wouldn't call it unputdownable, since it takes a while to get going, but once you get to the point where it sucks you in....


message 5: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Tzippy wrote: "Have you read Seraphina yet? :)

Actually, I wouldn't call it unputdownable, since it takes a while to get going, but once you get to the point where it sucks you in...."


Yes, and I really need to get it back to you! (next week perhaps). It was actually a pretty enjoyable book and I wouldn't mind something like that, though all the YA books that I've tried recently were really disappointing. Though, so was the ending of Seraphina, which I really disliked. Because of the way it ended I probably won't bother with the sequel.


message 6: by Edva (new)

Edva Lotan (edvalotan) | 12 comments If you like books that are both science fiction and humor, I strongly recommend these Scalzi books: The Android's Dream, Fuzzy Nation, Agent to the Stars and Redshirts.


ᑕᗢᗝᒪḰᓮᖙᖇᗢჯ123 ☆*・゜゚・*\(^O^)/*・゜゚・*☆ Cool (coolkidrox123) | 25 comments well... there is this book called Storm by brigid kemmerer... it isnt vey well know and it has a a bunch of swearing but... i stayed up till 2am cause i wanted desperetly to know what happens next. each chapter ebds with a clif hanger or somehig big so you HAVE to rad the bext chapter to find out what happens next... and it repeats itself every chapter. its about four brothers with elemental powers and a girl that was thrown into this elemental cinflict because she saved one of the brothers. it only has two POVs.... its amazig and uts the first in a trilogy... with a few novellas about the oldest brother before he events of thw book and stuff like that.


i also recomend eragon. it was a really good series but i have yt to read the last book... the large thickness of it makes me not bother to red it... -.-'

another book is maximum ride... that's the series. its more for teens undr the age of 18 .... but the main character is funny and sarcastic

the way of the shadows is amazing... its dark though... dark as in... assasins.....but so far im vey into it and its adult fiction

oathbreaker is good too

mist of the books i just reccomended are youbadult ... i dunno ur age so u sunno what books to recomend....that migt not be too hildish

oh and the percy jackson series i good


message 8: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments Simcha, have you read the 100 year-old man...?
It's funny but also has some interesting layers.


message 9: by Arnnei (new)

Arnnei Speiser | 1 comments Simcha wrote: "OK guys, I need your help. I haven't managed to finish a book in ages so I'm hoping some of you might be able to help me find a book to break my reading slump- a book so good that it will be imposs..."

I would suggest - Magic Kingdom for Sale — SOLD! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Ki...!)


message 10: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Coolkidrox123 ☯ The Shadow ☯ wrote: "well... there is this book called Storm by brigid kemmerer... it isnt vey well know and it has a a bunch of swearing but... i stayed up till 2am cause i wanted desperetly to know what happens next...."

I haven't heard of this book so I'll check it out.


message 11: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
@Jon: You mean the book about the 100 year old man that climbs out the window of his nursing home? I started it a few weeks back and while it was amusing enough I kind of lost interest in the story about half way through.

@ Arnnei: I had read Magic Kingdom for Sale many, many years ago but it's not a favourite of mine. For some reason fantasy books about people from our world ending up in fantasy worlds don't really work for me. I actually can't think of any that I really enjoyed, except a couple from the Xanth series, when I was a fan of those books.


message 12: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments OK, I know you said no post-apocalyptic-dystopia-etc but I just read the Wool omnibus (books 1-5) and it was pretty good, especially since the books are short so you can just read book 1 to see whether you want to continue. I'll probably read books 6-7 at some point.

BTW, have you tried Lamb yet?


ᑕᗢᗝᒪḰᓮᖙᖇᗢჯ123 ☆*・゜゚・*\(^O^)/*・゜゚・*☆ Cool (coolkidrox123) | 25 comments Simcha wrote: "Coolkidrox123 ☯ The Shadow ☯ wrote: "well... there is this book called Storm by brigid kemmerer... it isnt vey well know and it has a a bunch of swearing but... i stayed up till 2am cause i wanted..."

the thing is most of them are youn-adult... but i REALLY recommend Storm... (it miht be just me since i love elemental stuff


ᑕᗢᗝᒪḰᓮᖙᖇᗢჯ123 ☆*・゜゚・*\(^O^)/*・゜゚・*☆ Cool (coolkidrox123) | 25 comments Simcha wrote: "Coolkidrox123 ☯ The Shadow ☯ wrote: "well... there is this book called Storm by brigid kemmerer... it isnt vey well know and it has a a bunch of swearing but... i stayed up till 2am cause i wanted..."

the thing is most of them are youn-adult... but i REALLY recommend Storm... (it miht be just me since i love elemental stuff


message 15: by [deleted user] (new)

Funny this topic just came up. The last few weeks I have really been into Jack McDevittI am in the middle of Echothe 5th book in the 6 book set. It took me the last 3 weeks to read the last 3. I read the first one about 8 months ago and I was so hooked I was afraid to read the rest so as not to lose my life! But it happened I got so into it that I didn't even go on to GR to see anything else. Typical antisocial behaviour!
This is very "old school" space opera/mystery stuff. Lots of star travel, only one alien species, and most of the "problems" are solvable by great engineers! Hope you like them!


message 16: by Esther (new)

Esther (eshchory) | 218 comments Mod
Simcha wrote: "@Jon: You mean the book about the 100 year old man that climbs out the window of his nursing home? I started it a few weeks back and while it was amusing enough I kind of lost interest in the story..."
The people at Steimatsky keep trying to convince me to buy that one.


message 17: by Avi Feygin (new)

Avi Feygin | 6 comments considering that this is the israel sci fi fantasy book group i'm surprised nobody recommended joel rosnebergs not for glory as it happens to be a sci fi about jews... it's really a great book


message 18: by Nimrod (new)

Nimrod Daniel (nimroddaniel) | 314 comments Mod
I have Joel Rosenberg on my list,and as far as I know he writes thrillers and not sci-fi/fantasy.


message 20: by Nimrod (last edited Jan 15, 2013 09:42AM) (new)

Nimrod Daniel (nimroddaniel) | 314 comments Mod
I also have this Joel Rosenberg on my list, I forgot about this one, there're two Joel Rosenbergs :)

This is the other one:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...


message 21: by Avi Feygin (new)

Avi Feygin | 6 comments yeah i heard of that one too. but anyways try not for glory. it's a great book


message 22: by Yuval (new)

Yuval Bertocchi | 2 comments Try The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It's the second best book I've ever read; it was so addicting, I remember I couldn't wait to get back home from work to read it for 5 hours straight.


message 23: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments That's on my tbr list. What's the best book you've read?


message 24: by Yuval (new)

Yuval Bertocchi | 2 comments Jon wrote: "That's on my tbr list. What's the best book you've read?"

I'd have to say Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. It has no dull moments; important things happen on every page, and the way it's written makes every moment sound epic. I almost didn't want to read the last few chapters, because I didn't want the book to end.


message 25: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Yuval wrote: "Try The Forever War by Joe Haldeman. It's the second best book I've ever read; it was so addicting, I remember I couldn't wait to get back home from work to read it for 5 hours straight."

I do have the book on my shelf already but something I had read about it made me think it might be too hard core scifi for me, but I guess it can't hurt to give it a try.


message 26: by [deleted user] (new)

Sorry not here, got stuck in a LOOP of not put-downable books>
The Wise Man's Fear
The Digital Plague
Infinite Jest
Jennifer Estep 3 in a row

Shadow Show: All-New Stories in Celebration of Ray Bradbury

Read so much, no time for anything else.
As to the question:
"What is the best book you've ever read?" ONLY one answer to that:
Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
Read first year in college, made me become a math major and if I had only one book on an island with me it would be this.
(even though I cannot prove it)


message 27: by Nimrod (new)

Nimrod Daniel (nimroddaniel) | 314 comments Mod
I have Gödel, Escher, Bach on my list, someday I'll get to this tome.


message 28: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments I have it and have read parts of it but I can't get myself to sit down and read the whole thing. I'll try to read it before the end of the year.

You know how sometimes you'd rather watch a silly TV show instead of a very good documentary?
Well... Let's just say that I don't recall the last time I watched a documentary :-\


message 29: by Shlomz (new)

Shlomz | 2 comments Not quite SF, but 100% unputdownable:
REAMDE, by Neal Stephenson.


message 30: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Shlomz wrote: "Not quite SF, but 100% unputdownable:
REAMDE, by Neal Stephenson."


I just read the description of the book and it does sound interesting, though I've always been too intimidated by Stepenson's books to try any of them.


message 31: by Jon (new)

Jon (jon17) | 64 comments Simcha, it's been almost two years and this forum has been rather desolate, but did you find any "unputdownable" books since you started this thread?


message 32: by Esther (new)

Esther (eshchory) | 218 comments Mod
I found one - recommended to me by Simcha The Warded Man


message 33: by Uri (last edited Jan 31, 2017 09:39AM) (new)


message 34: by Simcha (new)

Simcha Lazarus (sclazarus) | 258 comments Mod
Uri wrote: "Ready Player One by Ernest Cline Ready Player One"

I loved Ready Player One! It was such a great read. And apparently they are making a movie based on it. Could be interesting.


message 35: by Uri (new)

Uri (urikelman) | 5 comments Simcha wrote:
"I loved Ready Player One! It was such a great read. And apparently they are making a movie based on it. Could be interesting.


Not only are they filming the movie right now, it's being director by Steven Spielberg!


message 36: by Tamar (new)

Tamar | 5 comments did y read night circus? one of the best!


message 37: by Nimrod (new)

Nimrod Daniel (nimroddaniel) | 314 comments Mod
Tamar wrote: "did y read night circus? one of the best!"

I should really read that book. Thank you for reminding me!


message 38: by Anat (new)

Anat | 14 comments Where are you guys getting all these books?


message 39: by Anat (new)

Anat | 14 comments I have lots of 'unputdownable' books. James Barcley, Peter Brett and Janny Wurts - all their works are outstanding. I enjoyed Elspeth Cooper, Stephen Lawhead, Anthony Ryani - The Tower Lord also.


message 40: by Esther (last edited Feb 11, 2017 12:48AM) (new)

Esther (eshchory) | 218 comments Mod
Anat wrote: "Where are you guys getting all these books?"

Well most of my recommendations I get from GR but I assume you mean how do we get the physical books.
Years ago I gave up on the local library or Steimatsky as the choice is too narrow.
I buy about 99% of my new books from The Book Depository. They have prices similar to Amazon but shipping is free! The shipping is quick and even if you order several books in one go they send them separately so you don't get stuck in customs.

In addition I use Bookmooch. I don't want to keep all the books I read but I don't want to throw them away either. On bookmooch you pay for the shipping to send your books to others and earn points to 'buy' the books you want that others have listed. The books available aren't to everyone's taste but I have got some good ones.

And there is also Better World Books. Free shipping and the prices are OK for second hand but I have found a couple of books I couldn't find anywhere else.


message 41: by Anat (new)

Anat | 14 comments Thnk you for the options. I usually order from Dany Books in jerusalem but they take a long time comming.


message 42: by Anat (new)

Anat | 14 comments Also if you want to sell some of the books I will be happy to be in touch . Please contact me via my facebook - ענת יניר


message 43: by Uri (new)

Uri (urikelman) | 5 comments Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) by Pierce Brown

I just finished Red Rising. Wow, what an amazing read!! It's the first part of a trilogy. I ordered the next two books from Book Depository and I am waiting for them to be delivered. I can't wait to dive more into that world. So, highly recommend!


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